


His

by ElizaHiggs



Series: Age of Summer [2]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-08
Updated: 2015-12-08
Packaged: 2018-05-05 14:43:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5378933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElizaHiggs/pseuds/ElizaHiggs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He, he knows, is the problem. | Cho contemplates his relationship with Summer | Cho POV stream of consciousness</p>
            </blockquote>





	His

**Author's Note:**

> Scene from Season 4, Episode 14: The team and Summer set up a sting op to arrest Murphy  
> \--  
> I do not own any of these characters

“Testing-testing-one-two Kimball Cho’s a wallaby.” 

She turns around and makes a face in their direction from the bar. They’re undercover, him and Rigsby, sitting at a table in street clothes with beers, but he hasn't touched his. He isn’t much of a drinker, and the sting op makes him nervous, and he wants all his wits about him. 

He glances over at Rigsby, the idiot whose idea it was to use Summer as bait, who seems amused by the situation. Summer calls him Wayne. Cho hates that.

“Here’s Murphy,” he says now, and looks down at his full glass while Rigsby hides his face. 

“What sort o’ business ya in?” Murphy is asking Summer in a thick Irish brogue. 

“I’m a working girl,” she replies, her voice cackling coolly over the wire, and Cho glances up. He knows it’s a lie, she’s told him – privately, before she’d announced it in front of everyone else – that she’d decided to quit sex work and that she’d hoped the decision wouldn't deflate her usefulness as his CI. It didn't matter to him, as long as she continued to bring him useful information, and when he’d told her so, he’d thought she’d looked mildly disappointed. 

Now Murphy is leading her out back to make a deal, and she glances back towards the two of them to make sure they’re watching her, and there’s a fear in her eyes that makes him stand up, instinctively, to follow.

“Wait,” Rigsby grabs his arm, stops him, “let it play out.”

He knows Rigsby is right – this is why they’re here – but as he sits back down his heart is pounding.

He lowers his face again, holds his beer with two hands and breathes deeply, to slow his heartbeat. He allows himself to wonder when he’d become so nervous when Summer is involved, when his heart first leapt into his throat at any sign of vulnerability in her eyes. 

Of course, he’d known he was attracted to her, but that had seemed…manageable. Normal. She's beautiful - in a rough way that appeals to him far more than the refined polish of the nice women he's become accustomed to. 

Rigsby, the romantic, had implied that Cho should fire her in order to make a move, but that seemed low, to fire her just to proposition her, and he has no intentions of taking advantage of their relationship. He knows what it's like to make a life on the streets. He understands her in a way Rigsby and the rest cannot. They're a team. 

When they hear Murphy make Summer the offer, Cho is done waiting. He moves fast – eager to arrest Murphy, pull Summer back inside, and be done with this stupid stunt – but Summer is still talking over the wire, and he and Rigsby slow up. 

“She’s trying to make our case,” Cho realizes – trying to get Murphy to admit to murder. He’d thought Summer was smarter than that – she must’ve had to be, in her line of work – than to go around challenging murderous men.

“Wait - just give her a minute,” Rigsby grabs his arm and holds him up for a second time, and he hears the respect in Rigsby’s voice, hears Rigsby’s confidence in her, and he realizes suddenly that he himself is the problem. 

His inability to stomach Summer in danger – to slow his damn heartbeat – prevents him from recognizing what the team already knows. Summer is smart, she’s a good CI, she’s cut out for this type of work. 

He, he knows, is the problem. And he knows simultaneously – because the thoughts are inseparable – that he has to fire her.


End file.
